A macro lens makes you look at the insect world…with fresh eyes. I may never take the kind of wonderful pictures that

Karthik

takes with that macro lens and that keen eye…but here are my attempts!

I’ve already posted about the

bug season

…but I thought I’d capture the everyday bugs, too!

Let’s start with this very tiny

FLY (update: says it's a DRAIN FLY)

that A found on the washbasin of the women’s room in the World Bird Sanctuary! It’s actually the size of a pinhead…but just look at those feathery feelers, and those gauzy wings!

Next on the scale is the HOUSEFLY which got into the house much to A's disgust...and which she got rid of, but not before I got on camera! Then came this insect which was as large as my hand...it *looks* like a mosquito, but surely, no MOSQUITO , not even Texas ones, can be as large as that?? That's actually a CRANE FLY ( to rhyme with Drain Fly, no doubt!) I have seen FUNNEL WEB SPIDERS many times, but never on top of a bush like this: They are everywhere nowadays, as I walk...and so are the really *extremely* loud CICADAS in the trees! Well, those are all "nasty" insects, so here's a really beautiful one...Karthik tells me it's the RED-SPOTTED PURPLE (at last, a butterfly name that makes sense!)

There it was, glowing on the side of the road in

Lone Elk Park :

Off to LA to attend a dance performance over the weekend..more about that anon…meanwhile…you lot enjoy YOUR weekend!